IFRS 4 - Insurance Contracts is an International Financial Reporting Standard issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) that delineates the accounting and reporting guidance for insurance contracts. The standard provides insurers with rules on how to recognize and disclose insurance contracts in their financial statements to ensure transparency and consistency across the financial reports.

Under IFRS 4, insurers may continue applying some of their existing accounting policies for insurance contracts if they meet certain criteria, even if those policies differ from other IFRS standards. At the same time, IFRS 4 requires insurers to disclose information about the amounts reported in their financial statements that arise from insurance contracts and demands entities to be explicit about their accounting policies for these contracts.

For example, a company should disclose the assumptions for calculating insurance liabilities within their financial reports, ensuring stakeholders have clarity about the basis of their financial results. Overall, IFRS 4 aims to improve the general understanding and comparison of financial information related to insurance contracts for users, while allowing some flexibility during the ongoing transition to a more comprehensive IFRS standard for insurance contracts.